ATTN: Sansamp RBI owners

This is a FYI directed towards anyone who currently is using the Sansamp RBI. It could save you some frustration and maybe even a gig.

I hooked up my rig in the rehearsal space after loading it in from a show, and got the nastiest sound I have ever heard out of it after juicing everything up. The sound was distorted with no lows. I checked all connections and cables and everything was correct. As sort of a last resort, I switched the output from the sansamp effected to the direct output(both 1/4") and got a decent straight thru sound which helped me limp through practice, but didn't have that nice cutting tone that I'm used to. After practice I tried the effected out once more, with the same results as before. As a note was ringing out, I smacked the top of the preamp, and to my surprise, it started working again. I was not able to get the nasty distorted sound to come back by additional jostling, either. Good deal. So I went ahead and opened up the top to have a look and see if any components had a cracked solder joint, or were loose in any way. Nothing.

In search of an explanation, I called Tech 21 and talked to a tech guy on the phone. I told him my symptoms, and this is what we think it was:

Apparently the connectors in the effects loop are extremely susceptible to dust bunnies and oxidation, and if enough builds up, the connection will go bad, causing the nasty crappy sound to be introduced as an effect. He said that this can be prevented by running a plug in and out of the effects loop jacks a few times every couple weeks or so(this is all assuming that you don't regularly use the loop, of course). He thinks that by smacking my preamp, I dislodged whatever it was in the connection and restored the clean signal.

So, if you hook up your RBI at a gig or rehearsal and get a dirty signal, try screwing around with the effects loop a bit before anything else- it may save you some time and money.